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The Latest: Trump and Putin cross paths again in Vietnam

November 11, 2017 by  
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DANANG, Vietnam — The Latest on President Donald Trump’s trip to Asia (all times local):

12:30 p.m.

President Donald Trump is crossing paths — again — with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Trump and Putin chatted Saturday as they strolled to a brief photo op at the Intercontinental Danang Sun Peninsula Resort in Danang, Vietnam. Chinese President Xi Jinping flanked Trump’s other side. Trump stood in the second row for the photo.

Trump and Putin shook hands Saturday morning as leaders of the 21-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation opened their meetings.

That followed a Friday night handshake and small talk at the summit’s welcome gala.

The White House says the two will not hold a formal meeting in Vietnam.

___

10:20 a.m.

President Donald Trump is beginning a day full of meetings at an economic summit in Vietnam.

He arrived Saturday morning at a leaders retreat at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting being held in the coastal city of Danang.

Trump was expected to attend a series of larger meetings and private audiences with other world leaders. He was not expected to have a formal meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, though aides have said an informal encounter is possible.

Trump has pulled the United States out of the Pacific Rim trade pact known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership. He says he wants one-on-one agreements with other nations. On Saturday, the 11 remaining TPP nations announced they had reached a trade pact without the U.S.

___

6:45 a.m.

President Donald Trump is in Danang, Vietnam, for a second day of meetings with Asian economic leaders.

Trump told attendees at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit Friday that he won’t let the United States be “taken advantage of anymore” on trade, adding he’ll always “put America first.”

Trump says the United States “can no longer tolerate these chronic trade abuses.”

The president — who pulled the United States out of the Pacific Rim trade pact known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership — says the U.S. will no longer join “large agreements that tie our hands, surrender our sovereignty and make meaningful enforcement practically impossible.”

After the APEC meetings Saturday, Trump will travel to the capital, Hanoi, for a state banquet.

__

2:09 a.m.

It may be an offbeat photo, but it’s no joke.

World leaders, including President Donald Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, donned matching silk button-down shirts at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit Friday in Vietnam. Since 1994, the summit included a “family photo” in local attire an annual display of cooperation among world leaders.

It was a departure for Trump, who’s rarely photographed in anything but a suit and tie or a golf shirt.

President Barack Obama tried to end the custom when he hosted the summit in Hawaii in 2012, when leaders wore suits, but that proved temporary. Previous APEC shirts have included ponchos in Peru, colorful batik shirts in Malaysia, and overcoats called durumaki in Korea.

U.S. news organizations weren’t given access to the event, unlike previous summits.

___

9:45 p.m.

President Donald Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin have shaken hands at a summit in Vietnam.

The two leaders were spotted on video greeting one another ahead of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit gala dinner in the coastal city of Danang.

Trump and Putin were expected to hold a formal meeting on the sidelines of the summit. But as Trump was about to land on Friday, the White House announced no meeting would take place.

Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders blamed scheduling conflicts.

But Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said earlier this week that the pair would not meet unless they had something substantive to discuss.

___

8:30 p.m.

President Donald Trump is attending a welcome event and gala dinner as part of a trade summit in Vietnam.

Trump arrived at a Danang hotel Friday evening for the events for world leaders and their spouses. The first lady had stayed in China and planned to return to Washington after touring the Great Wall.

Trump is attending annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Vietnam. It is one of several summits he is planning to attend during a five-country Asian tour. Formal talks are set to begin Saturday.

Earlier in the day Friday, Trump used a speech in Vietnam to denounce multilateral agreements embraced by the region and deliver what appeared to be a rebuke to China, railing against trade practices he says have put Americans out of work.

___

4:10 p.m.

U.S. first lady Melania Trump toured China’s famed Great Wall at Mutianyu, two hours north of Beijing city center.

She rode a cable car to a watchtower, signed a guestbook and strolled along a stretch of the wall for about half an hour with a small group of aides and security officers.

Mrs. Trump received a scroll as a gift and chatted with her Chinese hosts before she departed.

The first lady stayed in China as President Donald Trump flew to Danang, Vietnam, to participate in a regional economic and security conference.

She planned to return to Washington after touring the Great Wall. The president tweeted that his wife will first stop in Alaska “to greet our AMAZING troops.”

Earlier Friday, she went to the Beijing zoo to check out the pandas.

___

3:30 p.m.

Chinese President Xi Jinping says nations need to stay committed to economic openness or risk being “left behind.”

Xi made the remarks in a speech to a business conference in Danang, Vietnam, Friday. He spoke shortly after President Donald Trump told the same group that “we are not going to let the United States be taken advantage of anymore.”

The Chinese president urged support for the “multilateral trading regime” and progress toward a free-trade zone in the Asia-Pacific, drawing loud applause. He said that “self-seclusion leaves one behind.”

In his remarks, Trump reiterated his preference for country-to-country trade deals.

The leaders were speaking on the sidelines of the annual summit of the 21-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.

___

3 p.m.

President Donald Trump is signing a proclamation saluting the veterans of the Vietnam War.

Trump is in Danang, Vietnam, the site of an American air base that was used during the Vietnam War.

The president on Friday stood with seven veterans and praised their service. Some of the veterans spoke and praised Trump’s support of the military. One began to cry as he talked about fallen veterans and Trump hugged him.

Trump is in the midst of a lengthy Asia trip and is in Danang to attend an international summit.

___

2:10 p.m.

President Donald Trump is continuing his tough talk against North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.

Trump told an audience of CEOs at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Danang, Vietnam that the region’s future “must not be held hostage to a dictator’s twisted fantasies of violent conquest and nuclear blackmail.” He was referring to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Trump referenced his address in South Korea earlier this week when he called on countries to unite against North Korea. He said “every single step the North Korea regime takes toward more weapons is a step it takes into greater and greater danger.”

Trump also says civilized people must “come together” to drive out terrorists and extremists from our societies.

___

2 p.m.

President Donald Trump says he won’t let the United States be “taken advantage of anymore” on trade and add that he’ll always “put America first.”

Trump is speaking Friday to a gathering of CEOs at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Danang, Vietnam. He says: “we can no longer tolerate these chronic trade abuses and we will not tolerate them.”

Trump says the U.S. will seek trade relationships that are rooted in the principles of fairness and reciprocity. He says the opposite has happened for “too long.”

Trump says the United States has lowered market barriers but “other countries didn’t open their markets to us.”

He adds: “Simply put we have not been treated fairly by the World Trade Organization.”

___

1:30 p.m.

President Donald Trump says the whole world is being lifted by America’s economic renewal.

Trump is telling a gathering of CEOs at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Danang, Vietnam that a “new optimism” has swept across the United States since his election.

He’s reciting statistics about economic growth, low unemployment and stock market highs.

Trump says he’s had the pleasure of sharing the “good news from America” everywhere he’s been on his first official visit to Asia.

Says Trump: “The whole world is lifted by America’s renewal.”

___

This version corrects the 8:30 a.m. item to note that first lady Melania Trump did not travel to Vietnam with President Trump.

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Case of Missing Lebanese Prime Minister Stirs Middle East Tensions

November 11, 2017 by  
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Now analysts and diplomats are scrambling to figure out what the latest developments mean, whether they are connected and whether, as some analysts fear, they are part of a buildup to a regional war.

Mr. Hariri, until he announced his resignation on Saturday, had shown no signs of planning to do so.

Hours later, on Saturday evening, a missile fired from Yemen came close to Riyadh before being shot down. Saudi Arabia later blamed Iran and Hezbollah for the missile, suggesting that they had aided the Iran-aligned Houthi rebels in Yemen to fire it.

Before the world had a chance to absorb this news, the ambitious and aggressive Saudi Arabian crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, ordered the arrest of hundreds of Saudis — including 11 princes, government ministers and some of the kingdom’s most prominent businessmen — in what was either a crackdown on corruption, as Saudi officials put it, or a purge, as outside analysts have suggested.

It then emerged that the week before, Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, who has been sent on missions both to Israel and Saudi Arabia, had visited Riyadh on a previously undisclosed trip and met until the early morning hours with the crown prince. The White House has not announced what they discussed but officials privately said that they were meeting about the administration’s efforts to forge an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.

On Monday, Saudi officials said they considered the missile from Yemen an act of war by Iran and Lebanon, and on Thursday the kingdom rattled Lebanon by ordering its citizens to evacuate.

No one expects Saudi Arabia, which is mired in a war in Yemen, to start another war itself. But Israel, which fought a war with Hezbollah in 2006, has expressed increasing concern about Hezbollah’s growing arsenal on its northern border.

On Friday, Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, said that Saudi Arabia had asked Israel to attack Lebanon, after essentially kidnapping Mr. Hariri.

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“I’m not talking here about analysis, but information,” he said. “The Saudis asked Israel to attack Lebanon.”

He provided no evidence of his claim, but Western and regional analysts have also said that, given all the confusing and unexpected events and unpredictable players, they could not entirely rule out such a scenario.

Israeli officials, however, have been publicly predicting another war with Hezbollah while also vowing to do all they can to postpone it.

“There are now those in the region who would like Israel to go to war with Hezbollah and fight a Saudi war to the last Israeli,” said Ofer Zalzberg, a Jerusalem-based analyst for International Crisis Group. “There is no interest in that here.”

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President Emmanuel Macron of France meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia in Riyadh on Thursday.

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Saudi Press Agency, via Reuters

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long considered Iran to be Israel’s foremost enemy, a potential nuclear threat as well as a strategic adversary seeking to convert postwar Syria into a staging ground for attacks against Israel or into a corridor to transfer missiles and other weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

So Saudi Arabia’s stepped-up efforts to oppose Iranian influence in Lebanon drew measured applause in Jerusalem. But many Israelis fear that the aggressive actions by the Saudi crown prince could drag Israel into a war that it does not want.

Daniel Shapiro, a former United States ambassador to Israel, said that Israel and Saudi Arabia were pursuing similar goals at sharply different speeds and levels of proficiency.

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“I’m not sure they’re aligned tactically,” he said in an interview. Prince Mohammed, he added, “seems very impatient to actually spark the confrontation.”

There are no signs of war preparations in Israel. The country is not mobilizing troops on its northern border or calling up reservists, and Mr. Netanyahu has given no indication that he sees a conflict as imminent.

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Moreover, Israel’s war planners predict that the next war with Hezbollah may be catastrophic, particularly if it lasts more than a few days. Hezbollah now has more than 120,000 rockets and missiles, Israel estimates, enough to overwhelm Israeli missile defenses.

Many of them are long-range and accurate enough to bring down Tel Aviv high-rises, sink offshore gas platforms, knock out Ben-Gurion Airport or level landmark buildings across Israel.

Nor is Hezbollah necessarily hankering for battle with Israel, according to analysts who study the militant group closely. It is still fighting in Syria, where it has been backing the government of President Bashar al-Assad, and it is being drained by medical costs for wounded fighters and survivor benefits for the families of those killed, said Giora Eiland, a retired Israeli major general and former head of the country’s National Security Council.

“Hezbollah as an organization is in a very deep economic crisis today,” Mr. Eiland said. “But at the same time, the weaker they are, the more dependent they are on Iranian assistance — so they might have to comply with Iran’s instructions.”

But there have long been fears that now that the Syrian war — in which Hezbollah played a decisive role, gaining new influence, power and weapons — is almost over, Hezbollah’s enemies might seek to cut it down to size.

Mr. Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader, implied Friday that its fight in Syria was nearly finished. If Saudi Arabia’s goal was to force Hezbollah to leave Syria, he said: “No problem. Our goal there has been achieved. It’s almost over anyway.”

World leaders have sought to tamp down tensions.

President Emmanuel Macron of France left Saudi Arabia on Friday after a brief, last-minute meeting with the crown prince.

During the unexpected two-hour visit on Thursday, Mr. Macron “reiterated the importance France attaches to Lebanon’s stability, security, sovereignty and integrity,” his office said. He also discussed “the situation in Lebanon following the resignation of Prime Minister Hariri,” his office said, but provided no further details.

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A group of countries and organizations interested in Lebanon’s stability met Friday with the Lebanese president, Michel Aoun, and issued a statement expressing “concern regarding the situation and prevailing uncertainty in Lebanon” and calling for Lebanon to be “shielded from tensions in the region.”

The members of the group, the International Support Group for Lebanon — including the United Nations, Britain, China, France, Germany, Italy, Russia and the United States, as well as the European Union and the Arab League — are not all on the same side of the issues at stake so the statement seemed to reflect broad international concern.

At a news conference in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, before the meeting, Mr. Macron said he did not share Saudi Arabia’s “very harsh opinions” of Iran.

Analysts say a new war in the region is unlikely but some have warned that the increased tensions could provoke an economic crisis or even start a war accidentally. Miscalculations have started wars before, as in the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.

Experts caution that Israel is often only a mistake or two from being drawn into combat.

“It’s a dangerous situation now,” said Amos Harel, the military reporter for Haaretz, the Israeli newspaper. “It only takes one provocation, another reaction, and it can get all of a sudden completely out of control. And when you add the Saudis, who evidently want to attack Iran and are looking for action, it gets even more complicated.”

Correction: November 10, 2017

Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article misstated where President Emmanuel Macron of France met Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia. They met in Riyadh, not in Abu Dhabi.

Follow Anne Barnard and David M. Halbfinger on Twitter: @ABarnardNYT and @halbfinger

Anne Barnard reported from Beirut, and David M. Halbfinger from Jerusalem. Reporting was contributed by Alissa J. Rubin from Paris, Gardiner Harris from Washington, and Hwaida Saad and Nada Homsi from Beirut.


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